As the door into the temple swung open I was amused and unsurprised to note that even just the entryway into the interior of the temple was larger than the temple's exterior. I made a mental note of that with an amused smile on my face. And that was before I began to gaze at the figures who were awaiting me within the vast entryway, with walls which seemed to be made of silver and shone brilliantly when exposed to sunlight which snuck into the entryway as I opened the door.
The first figures I noticed were many, as in several dozen, pixies. They were all minuscule humanoids with wings, and curiously they were all identical aside from the staggering variety of their hair colors. They were the first beings within the temple to approach me, excitedly fluttering to me from within the entryway, their eyes filled with the most intense, adoring love I had ever seen. They wore blue dresses, all of which were also fully identical. When they reached me they began to gently kiss my cheeks and face, and I allowed them to do so with a soft smile.
"Hello, little ones. Who... are you?" I asked as they surrounded me. I heard them begin to giggle gently, though the combined volume of their giggle since they were moving and giggling in unison was quite impressive.
"We are the Sapphire Court! We came into being... Because of you! To serve you and worship you, the grand adonis, joyously." One of them explained, her voice a soft whisper in my ears. She had light blue hair and perhaps the most gorgeous green eyes I had ever seen. There was an overwhelming amount of sincerity in her voice, so much so that I found it hard to doubt their claim.
"We spontaneously came into being, in this temple, when you first awoke as a grand adonis. We've been here, waiting for you the whole time. And now you're finally here..." She whispered, bubbly. There was love in her voice, something I could clearly hear. Hearing her made me remember when my heart still beat, and the sensation of it beating faster and faster. And yet, we weren't alone. As hard as it was for me to tear my gaze from her eyes, I summoned the willpower to do so and turned to gaze past her.
There were many people in the temple's entryway. Among them were a number of angels, including two who had auras of powerful energy surrounding them. They were the next two beings to approach me. They approached me until the pixie who had spoken to me earlier began to glare at them, causing the two of them to smile. They stopped approaching me and bowed before me, humbling themselves before me to assuage any fears felt by the speaker of the Sapphire Court.
Both of the angels had the six wings that members of their species associated with seraphim. Their wings were vast things that jutted out from their backs, one of them had white wings and the other had brown ones. Their hair color matched their wing color. They wore white dresses, though the one with white wings wore a dress that was far more formal and elegant than her fellow six-winged angel. I opted to allow them to speak before I said anything but ended up almost immediately regretting that decision.
"Lord Anael, we have come to pledge ourselves to you." The one with the white wings began. Her statement caused gasps to erupt from many of the other people who were nearby, but curiously not everyone. I had to work to suppress any expression of annoyance from slipping out of my lips, and it was unusually, almost unnaturally hard for me to do so which I immediately chalked up to my acquisition of power over the sin of wrath. That said I did quietly whisper something to the rather forthright angel.
"That... was a secret. My status as an anael is not public information." I muttered, so quietly that I might as well have said it telepathically. However, the instant those words left my lips the angel's eyes widened in shock and embarrassment. This caused the other angel to smile subtly and to loudly clear her throat before beginning to speak.
"Lord Adonis, pardon my sister. She has a..." Her fellow angel began, before turning to her sibling and far more visibly smirking.
"A bit of an accent. I should have been the first to speak but I was simply too awed by you, too overcome with emotion, to find my words. My sister and I are prime angels, part of the very first angelic host created by this multiverse's grand and long-vanished creator. We, unlike the rest of our siblings, set out to explore the greater multiverse in the wake of the disappearance of our creator, believing it best to help people rather than wait for our mother's reappearance. We explored the multiverse for eons, aimlessly helping people and righting wrongs without much as far as a purpose went." She continued, her confident voice filling the entryway of the temple, audible to all.
"But when we learned of the day that a grand adonis would arise in this universe we wondered if maybe we could be given a purpose again. And then when we first heard of you, from the grand venus who brought us here..." She stated, causing me to visibly pause. I had not heard, from Aurelina or anyone else, that a grand venus would be here.
"She told us of the work you did on your world, enthralling us with tales of your kindness and your generosity. She persuaded us to come here with her. To swear ourselves to you. She persuaded us to have a magnificent destiny again." The angel proclaimed, a surprising amount of fervor in her voice. And right when she finished speaking, another of the figures standing in the entryway stepped forward.
This figure wore what I immediately recognized as a bridal dress that someone could have requested a tailor from Jasper to make. She was a short woman with chestnut-colored hair and she was about the same height as an average human from Hasperburg. Her eyes were open and they were pure white orbs. She had lovely curves, the sort that someone could easily fall in love with and were certainly distracting. She smiled at me and revealed pure white teeth.
"That... would be me, Lord Adonis. It is so nice to finally meet you. My name is Rayne, and I am a grand venus." She proclaimed, her voice almost heart-stoppingly beautiful before wings of pure energy suddenly shot out of her back. Behind me, I could hear those who had just visited my temple fall to their knees in awe of the beauty of venus's revealed appendages.
"I am a being of love and intensified, solidified, manifested energy. I have come here seeking you out, my love. When I found the temple, it was easy for me to swear myself to you. And of course, it let me in. And kept me safe and housed until you arrived." She revealed, her voice somehow growing even more lovely than it had been before. It almost took me a second to realize what she was doing. When she next spoke, she spoke with immense authority and pride.
"Now that I, and the other brides of the grandest adonis of them all, have finally met our husband... Those of you who have not sworn yourselves to him and do not intend to do so shall leave. I have waited for my love for weeks. I do not seek to spend another second without him. Begone!" She said, her voice still the sound of perfection and beauty but carrying with it a hard to resist authority. I could sense that Rayne was using one of the same powers I possessed, the ability to control minds, with her voice.
I turned and saw several people standing up, happy but blank expressions on their faces, and watched as they wordlessly left. Some of them were gods! I watched, awed, as they obeyed Rayne's commands. It was only when the last of them was gone that I felt Rayne wrap her arms around me.
"Raul... It's really you. Finally..." She whispered, her voice filled with the same amount of adoration and love as the pixie who had spoken earlier. I turned around and took in the scene in front of me. As incredible as all of this was, there were still multiple other figures who had yet to introduce themselves. And with even the slightest glimpse into their minds, I could see that many of them shared a story in common with the prime angels who had introduced themselves before.
They had all met Rayne and been talked into coming here and joining me by her. After a few moments, Rayne stopped hugging me and offered me her hand. She smiled up at me and began to speak.
"Raul, let's explore the rest of the temple. There are still more people you need to meet. People who aspire to join your... our... empire." She told me, her voice a quiet whisper. It was at that moment that I curiously expanded my senses fully on the area beyond the entryway. As I did I heard several distinct conversations and felt the lifeforce of many different people, including other beings who felt similar to Zaria. Other deities.
"Consider this my present to you, as a way to celebrate our union. An... engagement present." She said, with a curious and remarkable glint in her eyes, white as they were. There was a mischievous spark there that filled me with even greater curiosity. And I could have never imagined how hectic the rest of the day would prove to be.
The rest of the day passed in a blur. Rayne walked me into the depths of my temple, whispering all the while, and I was able to meet the many women that Rayne had brought along with her.
Rayne was very easily the single most charismatic person I had ever met. She introduced me to her own servants, two seraphim she had talked into leaving the gods who had created them and serving her, and now us, as well as a seraph named Savannah who swore herself to me exclusively and gave me command of her own order of angels. She also introduced me to a small pantheon of goddesses she had managed to rescue from various ordeals and make into "our" new pantheon as part of an elaborate gift for me. To say nothing of the other inhabitants of the temple, many of whom were beautiful and influential in their own rights.
Rayne, more so than anyone I had met to date, was fully enamored with me. Occasionally we'd get a second to ourselves, where even the pixies of the Sapphire Court were missing, usually distracted by something, and she'd tell me that she knew that I was the "Grandest Adonis" and the "True Anael". Reading her mind only revealed that she was actually holding back the true depth of her feelings because she was trying not to overwhelm me.
When hours had passed, and I had had the chance to meet the surprisingly numerous inhabitants of my newest home, I was alone in a private room for me in the back of the incredibly vast temple. I was seated in front of a small table and I began to try and organize the new things I had just acquired as a result of Rayne's seemingly endless, yet remarkably successful efforts to recruit for... "our" empire.
"I should start with... the most impressive new acquisitions." I remarked, trying to look at things from the top-down, rather than the bottom-up.
Inarguably the most impressive thing I had just acquired was the position of "Sultan" over an entire galaxy, which was an incredibly vast boost to my territory. As I even considered that, I was reminded of the six sisters responsible for it, six houri, or angels of love, who had been recruited into Rayne's efforts to give me a hell of a betrothal present.
The houri had themselves become "Sultanas" of a galaxy far from the one I was from due to their effortless, heart-capturing beauty. Those who had sought to court them have even given them their titles and influence in exchange for a chance to try and win their hearts and the houri siblings had never fallen for anyone. Until they met me, in the depths of the temple. Which was one of the ways that today had been eventful. My absolute beauty had captured their hearts and they swore themselves to me within moments of meeting me.
Previously I would have tried to talk them out of it, but... I was determined to be an emperor. And this was a way for me to do that, using my powers to peacefully gain territory and influence without violence or suffering. So I had quietly decided to accept this and many other presents I had received.
Another considerably amazing present I had gotten as part of a betrothal discussion was on the table in front of me. It was, at a glance anyway, a small and reflective stone. And yet it was perhaps the single most impressive item in my possession. The tiny stone was a gift to me by a goddess of invention, one of several goddesses Rayne had recruited, who wanted me to marry her too. And the stone was currently attuning itself to my "capital world" of Hasperburg. I tried not to think of how powerful it'd be when I could activate it, but the stone in front of me was unbelievably powerful according to Nixie, the goddess who had created it.
And astoundingly, that wasn't it. I had also gained other titles, such as "King" and "God-King" of various planets, and individual star systems thanks to Rayne's recruitment push. When I tried to wrap my mind around it I fully froze in place and silently wondered what to do, suffering fully from analysis paralysis, before I felt a wave of frustration start to build up within myself, one much stronger than the one I felt before.
I gritted my teeth and waited for the white-hot surge of anger to pass, well aware of the dangers of the sin of wrath which was now a part of me. This was a consequence of a meaningful, permanent victory against an unbelievably powerful demon lord.
yup!